China set to unseat UK as fourth biggest economy

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CHINA is poised to overtake the UK — and France and Italy — to become the world’s fourth largest economy after a national economic census found there was far more private sector activity than had been previously assumed.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics is expected to revise its GDP upwards by up to 20 per cent, or $300 billion, catapulting the country up from its position as the seventh- ranked economy on Earth.

Previously, China’s 2004 GDP was estimated at $1.65 trillion, but this figure appears to have failed to take into account small and medium- sized companies in the